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Show THE FATALREQUESTll 1 gjg FOUND OUT I Dy A. L. llarrla Author of "Mine Own Familiar Friend." etc. 1 H Copyright, TOTT", by V a $ $ I I Fm b 1 1 s M n g Company H 1 Copyright, l o ti , byBtrttt t J m I i A . H CHAPTER VII. Continued. For some reason Ted Uurrltt ro-mnlned ro-mnlned behind. "I'll let them go first," he said to himself. In the meantime, those who bad been to view tho body In tho vestrj returned. re-turned. It was evident from tilolr manner, nnd the short time they had been absent, thnt no Identification had taken place. Ted iltirrltt, with hlr, heart beating wildly now, turned in tho snmo dlrec-".on. dlrec-".on. On tho extemporized bier a body lay, tho lower limbs of which wero covered with a cloth, leaving tho face and tho upper part of tho body exposed ex-posed to view. Ted Uurrltt saw that It was tho face of a man of about fifty years of ngo, with features that must hnvo beon handsome In their dny but which in death woro an expression of agonized expectancy the expression ex-pression of ono who recognized tho full horror of tho fato that awaited him. It was the face of his own father! CHAPTER VIII. Dr. Jeremiah Cartwrlght. A fow moments clnpsed, nt tho end of which tlmo tho door of tho vestry openod again. This tlmo to admit a small, mlddlo-nged gentleman, whoso somewhat Imposing Homnn noso wns surmounted by a pair of gold-rlmmcd spectacles, nnd whoso civil garb had an nlinost military cut and prcclsencss about It. Ho cleared his throat and gnvo a sharp llttlo cough llko a doublo knock. "I bog your pardon, my dear Hlr, I hopo I'm not disturbing you. but " Ted Uurrltt rose to his feet nnd seemed, all at once, to wako from tho apathy of grief which had overcome over-come him when ho realized that his worst fears had been surpassed, nnd that his beloved parent had met with a horrible death, such ns tho most abandoned criminal might hnvo shuddered shud-dered nt. His eyes wero bloodshot; . his hair tossed and tumbled, as though ' had boon clutched at and dishevel- v muscular Angers. His dross -jsty nnd disordered, and ho haggard unwashed appear- - In splto of thoso drawbacks, other ejaculated under his breath: Humph! A lino fellow. Seems uncommonly cut up, too rather unusual un-usual thing In theso days. Seems to bo something llko gcmilno feeling horo. And I llko to see it! I llko to boo it!" Having arrived at tho conclusion of theso remarks, tomo of which might hnvo been distinctly audible, had tho listener chosen to lend an enr In their direction, ho continued out loud: "lly-tho-by, lot mo Introduce myself. my-self. My name's Cartwrlght Jero-mlah Jero-mlah Cartwrlglu, surgeon, etc., Into of tho 47th." Tod Uurrltt turned toward him with something llko nn nppenranco of Interest, In-terest, and tho doctor, seeing this, wont on: "Yes, I've) boon on tho spot ever alnco the accident tool; plnco. You'vo heard how It was, of course? It was an awful sight, and what mado It moro so was tho fact that llttlo or nothing could bo done to help. Tho groans nnd shrieks wero somothlug awful, and what was moro, tho front of tho train wns completely onvolopod In n blnnk pitch-like smoko from tho burning oil which, ns you know, had oxplodod from the concussion-through concussion-through which tho flames leaped and hissed. It was quite an hour -c.oro they had burnt themselves out, nnd, even then, tho heat was so Intense that thoro waa no opportunity of approaching ap-proaching the carriages for somo hours nfter that. And whon wo did" ho paused Impressively nnd throw out his hands "when wo did, thero wns nothing left but smoking skeletons skele-tons of men. wo.ren nnd children yes, sir, children and In somo In-stnncos, In-stnncos, ns you may have seen for yoursolf. not even that!" Tod nurrltt uttered a groan, ns tho doctor wound up in n broathless condition. con-dition. "Torrlblo, wasn't It?" said tho latter, recovering himself In no tlmo. "Hut you" laying his hand on tho young mnn's shoulder "you mustn't give I way, you know. Just consider these other poor folks the church Is full of thorn. 'Thoy, many of thorn, hnvo nothing loft of their ead, but n few ashes n handful of black dust. Whnt Is mor, In most cases, thoy do not ovon know which particular handful of dust, or how many of tho nwfes they may claim ns their own. Con-paro Con-paro your case with theirs, and I think you will agree with me. that you l.ivo a great deal to he thankful for. jou enn hnvo your dead decently interred, in-terred, with his name upon his h.:.d-stone." h.:.d-stone." Ted Uurrltt raised his head, wliUh wns Biinkon betwoon ills shouhUw. "You ure right," he said ilrmly, "I lm.ve a great deal to bo thankful for, c-.-en yet." "That's right," said tho doctor, resuming re-suming his brisk, evory-dny idiio, "that's tho way to look at tho mattr. Hy-the-by" lowering his volco npn "I may as well tell you that I wi.b ono of tho party who helped to find the poor gentleman," and ho motioned with his head toward the corpse. "Yes" as tho other mnde n sudden step toward him "ho wns In tho fourth cnrrlago from the engine, a first class carriage It was, and he wbh the only occupant. This carriage was thought to bo empty, ns no cries wero heard, nnd It was generally believed that whatever passengers It might have contained hnd made their escape beforo tho (tames reached it. Of course, tho supposition Is thnt ho was disabled, perhaps killed outright, by tho effects of tho collision: for tho carriage car-riage was much dnmnged, nnd we had bonio considerable difficulty In extricating extri-cating him," Tho young mnn nodded his head and nn oxpresslon of relief spread Itself over his countenance. "I should llko to think that," ho said, "it would bo n great alleviation If I could bellovo ho perished llko thnt, Instead of enduring the agony of that other hideous death," and. as ho sjioko ho bhuddercd and set his teeth together. to-gether. "Depend upon It, thnt was tho truth of tlio matter," rejoined the llttlo doctor. doc-tor. "Ho might hnvo been struck BonsclesH by a blow upon tho head. At any rate I shall find out that when I It was the face of his own father! mnko my examination of tho remains. 1 don't know whether you enro to stop whllo I? No?" In nnswor to a violent vio-lent shnko of the bend. "Well, perhaps per-haps it's hotter not." "And you think," Tod Uurrltt Inquired, In-quired, "that tho examination will Bhow you how my father died?" Tho doctor nodded his head. "You remnln for tho Inquest, I suppose?" "When ?" began tho young man. Hut tho garrulous llttlo gentleman did not nllow him to finish. "Monday "Mon-day morning twelvo o'clock," he Jerked out. "You'll find tho plnco very full, but very llkoly you'll bo ablo to get n bed somewhere. If not como to mo nnd I'll put you up." Ted Uurrltt, moved by this generous offer on tho part of n stranger, thanked thank-ed him In a fow broken, but heartfelt words. Ho mado his way back to tho station, sta-tion, nnd found that another train hnd Just arrived bearing a still further fur-ther load of niixlous, grlof-strlcken Inquirers. In-quirers. Ho wroto out n tologrnphlp messago and consigned It to ono of tho clerks; not ono of whom had had his hand off tho Instrument all night. On tho lino groups or mon, under proper superintendence, wero still busily engaged In searching among the heaps of debris. As Ted Uurrltt stood and watched thorn at tholr work, suddenly tho thought flashed across his mind again his father's friend! What had ho-como ho-como of him? CHAPTER IX. A Startling Discovery. Tho telegram which Tod nurrltt Bout to his slstor was as follows: "Havo found my fnthor. Am ro-mnlnlng ro-mnlnlng until nftor tho Inquest. Hrenk tho nows gontly." Hnvlng dlsposod of this duty. It occurred to him that ho would bo tho bettor for n wash and n meal. Thoro was an unnssumlng llttlo Inn not far from whero ho stood. It looked clenn nnd Inviting to the wonry young follow, fol-low, nnd thlthor ho bent his steps-only steps-only to find thnt the modest llttlo hostolry wns already besieged by thoso whoso errand had boen the snmo as his own. He was told by tho landlord land-lord hlmsolf, almost before ho had time to frnmo tho Inquiry, that thoy were full up tn the hayloft; but It was Just posslbh that he might find someone In tho village who might bo ablo to tnko him In. Mine host strongly strong-ly rcVonunondod the gentleman to go nnd secure old Mother Jlnman's room. A small urchin who was hanging about tho door, was Induced, by tho prospect of twopence, to show tho way to tho old dame's cottogo. Having seen tho room, n funny llttlo place up under tho roof, In which ho could barely stand upright, but which spotlessly clean ns It wns, seemed a very havon of rest to the worn out young man. and having expressed him kclt ub satisfied, nnd paid five shlll lni:s In advance, ns a token of good faith, tho old damo departed In search ot new laid eggs, from her own hens to serve up for her new lodger's break last. In the meantime tho young man tnrew himself Into a chair with a hoavy sigh, which tho good old wiul hrfard as she shut tho door upon him She returned to tho room, In nbout half nn hours tlmo with n trny, which umtnlned tho homely but excellent country fare she had prepared, and finding no notice taken of tho knock ;th which she announced the nrrival ot brenkfnst, pushed open the doot unJ entered. She found the now lodger fast asleep on his chair, with his head resting on tho tnblo, and, ilcixjltlnp her trny thereon nlso, stood regarding him with motherly solicitude, "Poor. denr. young gentlemnn," she murmured to herself, "If 'o don't look dead beat! I'll Jest put tho breakfast by 'lm, so ns 'o enn seo It when 'o wakes." She left the room, closing tho door behind her. und still the young man slept on. In spite of his constrained attitude at-titude and the hardness of his pillow. Another half hour passed, nt tho end of which tlmo another step was heard ascending the crazy llttlo wooden wood-en staircase n (Inner step, but nt tho same time lighter than tho other; und another volco this tlmo n mnscullno one might hnvo been heard to way, "All right, Mm. Jlnninn don't you trouble will announce myself!" Which the speaker proceeded to do first of nil by the application ot his knuckles, which, proving ineffectual, wns followed by the lifting of tho latch, and the appearance ol the figure of Dr. Jeromlnh Cartwrlght upon tho threshold. He, too, contemplated the sleeping, figure doubtfully. "Humph!" ho ro-murked, ro-murked, half nloud. "Asleep, oh? Cood thing, too; gone through a lot; worn himself out. Hullo! What's this? Hreukfnst, eh? All got cold, too! Hotter wake him up nfter ull!" This he did very gently; nnd Ted Uurrltt started up, rubbing his eyes. Then, recognizing the situation ns well ns the personality ot tho Individual Indi-vidual who confronted him. "Oh, Lord!" he cried, with n groan, "I d forgotten nil nbout It. Hut tell me what the exam " Tho doctor Interrupted him with a gesture. "Whnt's thnt I koo7" looking look-ing nt the vinnds through his gold rimmed spectacles. "Ten? eggs? butter? but-ter? cream? brown bread? My news will keep; your brcaktast won't, or, rather has been kept too loug already. al-ready. Sit down at onco nnd dispose of tho contents of that tray, or; you don't get another word out of mo." Ted was astonished to find how hungry hun-gry ho was, and had soon cleared tho board; though, at tho same time, ho found It rather embarrassing to feel that ho was an object of interest to an Individual In gold-rlmmcd Rpec-tacles. Rpec-tacles. who stared at him persistently through them, nnd kept up a running commentary under his breath nil tho tlmo. Somo of tho ejaculations, tx, which caught his ear wero decidedly of a nature to arouse curiosity on tho part of the hearer, who now nnd then could not avoid overhearing bucIi fragments frag-ments ns these "Mysterious ndalr should llko to get nt tho bottom of It. Talk about Ronsntlnnal Incidents! Wonder how he'll take it!" etc. "And now," snld thn young man, turning round upon him, "toll me whnt Is the result you have arrived at?" (To bo continued.) |